


Just to Keep Me Warm

by duchessofthemoonbase



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: "I know", Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Damerey Week, F/M, Fluff, sweater, they were roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-22 20:23:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21082553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duchessofthemoonbase/pseuds/duchessofthemoonbase
Summary: Poe leaves on a business trip right as a cold front blows in. His roommate, Rey, is stuck at their apartment with no way to keep warm.Until she borrows his sweater, that is.





	Just to Keep Me Warm

“Have you seen my cell phone charger?” Poe called from the living room. “I can’t find it anywhere.”

“Nope!” Rey yelled back. She was lounging on the sofa and watching Netflix. Her roommate of six months, Poe Dameron, was set to leave for a week-long business conference that evening—and as usual, he was packing at the last minute.

Rey tried to pay attention to her show, but she was really watching Poe dart madly around the apartment as he looked for his things. He was always a bit of a mess, with his unkempt curls and lost keys, but she loved him for it.

I mean, she liked him for it. Poe was attractive, yes—I mean, she wasn’t blind. But that was it. After all, this was the guy who left his dirty socks on the floor and spent more time with his corgi, Beebee, than his friends. That was it.

“There’s a cold front coming in, you know,” Poe said, rifling through a drawer. “And we don’t have heating.”

Rey shrugged. “This is Miami. How bad can it get?”

“I just want to make sure you’re okay,” Poe said, looking up from a tangled mess of charging cords. There was a softness in his eyes that hadn’t been there before.

“You’re forgetting I’m from Boston,” Rey said. “I’ve seen blizzards you wouldn’t believe. If it hits forty degrees I’ll live, Poe.”

“I know, I just—”

“I’ll be fine.”

Poe left her with a resigned smile and Rey turned back to the screen. It would be a lonely week without him. In the six months they had lived together, they had become each other’s closest friends. Both of them were new to the city, having moved here for work, and shy as well, so they ended up clinging to each other. They went to bars and bookstores, and sometimes spent the weekend taking Beebee for walks and having movie marathons. It was a comfortable life. It wasn’t until Poe mentioned that he had to go out of town for a week that Rey realized how much she would miss having him around.

“I think that’s everything,” Poe said, slamming his suitcase shut. “My cab is outside.”

Rey stood up from the couch and wandered towards him, Beebee following in her footsteps. “Have a good trip,” Rey said, and for some reason it didn’t feel like nearly enough.

“I will,” Poe said, looking at her fondly. “I’ll miss you though. And Beebee, of course,” he said, reaching down to scratch her on the head. “But I know you’ll give her lots of belly rubs when I’m gone.”

“_Extra_ belly rubs,” Rey said, and they shared a smile. Poe reached in for a hug, and Rey was just about to settle into it when she realized it had gone on a little bit too long to be appropriate.

“Well,” Poe said, stepping back and waving. “See you in a week.”

“See you,” Rey said, smiling sadly as Poe shut the door.

She stood there for a long time, listening as his footsteps sounded down the hallway.

***

The next day, Rey decided to make herself fried rice. Poe usually made them fried rice out of their Chinese leftovers (it had become a bit of a weekly tradition), and she figured she could do it herself.

She couldn’t.

“This is a mess, Beebee,” Rey said, wincing as she tasted a spoonful from the pan that was over-saturated with soy sauce. “You dad does it better, I think.”

Beebee just smiled at her, and she gave her a treat.

“Do you think I’m talking to you too much?” Rey asked her. “Without Poe here I need someone to talk to, I suppose.”

Beebee stared at her blankly.

“You think I’m crazy, don’t you?” 

Beebee barked, and Rey left it at that.

***

“It’s Friday night!” Rey announced to Beebee as she came through the door the next day. “What do you think? A night on the town, perhaps?”

Beebee was half-asleep on the couch.

“Oh come on,” Rey said, scratching her head. “Your dad likes hanging out with me.”

Beebee did not respond.

“Fine,” Rey said, and plopped down in front of the television. “I’ll watch tv.”

Rey curled up on the couch, barely paying attention to old sitcom reruns as she scrolled through her phone. The start of the weekend was always more exciting with Poe around. They would get dressed up and go out into the city, usually without a plan, to see what there was to do. Sometimes they ended up at an outdoor concert or a museum; or sometimes they ended up buying Lunchables from a bodega, sitting out on the curb listening to music on Poe’s phone. Whatever happened, it was always an adventure.

“He’s a little bit of an idiot, but I miss him, you know?” She told Beebee, and she yawned. “It’s sure going to be a boring weekend without him.”

***

Rey woke up Saturday morning to the sound of bells going off. Her ringtone.

“Hello?” she grumbled, her voice still groggy and in desperate need of coffee. 

“Hey, you awake yet?”

Rey groaned. It was Finn, one of her only new friends in Miami. “What is it?”

“Rose and I are headed to the Farmer’s Market this morning. Do you and Poe want to come with?”

“It’s like seven a.m. On a _Saturday._”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, but that’s how Farmer’s Markets work, apparently. So I’m guessing that’s a no?”

“You guessed correctly.”

“Does Poe want to come?”

“He’s on his business trip, remember?”

“_Ahhhh._” Finn said. “That explains it.”

“Explains what?” Rey asked.

“Why you’re so grumpy.”

“I’m not grumpy. Why would I be grumpy? I’m grumpy because you woke me up at seven a.m.”

“Okay,” Finn said, sounding unconvinced, and Rey hung up and went back to sleep.

She woke up three hours later to an eerily quiet house and wished she had accepted.

***

When Rey walked out of her office Monday evening, she was met with a shock. It had to be somewhere around thirty-five degrees. That was just a normal day in Boston, but for Miami? It was practically the apocalypse. 

She shivered as she made her way home. Rey hadn’t brought anything from Boston that was suitable for any weather that was less than tropical, and their home didn’t have any heating.

She was in big trouble.

Rey rushed in the door to find her apartment wasn’t much warmer than the street outside. She immediately began to boil a mug of tea as she rifled through her closet. She managed to find one pair of jeans and a thin long-sleeved shirt.

But it wasn’t enough. She was shivering.

Rey dashed around the apartment, looking for anything that she could possibly use to keep herself warm. She had packed lightly and optimistically when she moved here from Boston, thinking that she’d never face anything cooler than seventy degrees. Now here she was, the thin sheet from her bed wrapped around her and a mug of tea in her hands, running around her apartment like an idiot.

She froze and looked at Poe’s room, and then looked at Beebee. “Do you think he has anything?” she whispered, and Beebee barked playfully in response.

Rey crept into Poe’s room and went for his closet, Beebee following close behind. “This is an invasion of privacy, isn’t it? Can I do this?”

Beebee stared at her blankly, and Rey nearly dropped her mug of tea as a rather aggressive shiver swept through her. “Oh, screw it,” she said.

Rey opened the door to Poe’s closet, finding it an absolute mess. The floor was covered in sneakers and broken model airplanes. Unfortunately, like Rey, most of Poe’s clothes would do little to keep her warm in the apartment. 

“I think I’m out of luck,” she told Beebee, and then turned around to see something green, wool, and knitted on Poe’s desk chair. “Aha,” she said, and picked it up. It was a massive green sweater.

“Brilliant,” Rey said, and slipped it over her head. “I’m sure he won’t mind.”

***

Once again, Rey had nothing to do that evening except watch more tv.

She sat on the couch with Beebee and the takeout food she had ordered (pho with lots of sriracha to keep her warm) and stared lazily at the tv. She hated how quiet it was without Poe. It was driving her crazy.

When she was full from the soup, she laid down on the couch, resting her head in her arms. The sweater was right up against her face, impossibly soft. She noticed it smelled like Poe—something woodsy and warm and citrusy all at once. She stuck her nose in it and smiled.

Beebee stared at her.

“It’s because my nose is cold,” she said, and changed the channel on the tv.

***

It got even colder that night when it was time for Rey to go to bed. She looked at her drawer of pajamas and realized she only had shorts and tank tops.

It wasn’t…it wasn’t weird to sleep in the sweater, right?

She shrugged. She was too cold to care.

Rey cuddled up in bed, pressing her face to the sweater again, and after a while, she finally began to feel warm. She sighed happily and let her mind wander.

She wondered if Poe would ever get a girlfriend, and if he did, if he would let her wear his sweaters and jackets like this. Rey imagined the girlfriend would like it—snuggling up to the sweater was almost like getting a hug from him. It was a nice feeling.

Poe would be a nice boyfriend, if he ever found the right person. He was so sweet, and funny, and kind—he always knew what Rey was thinking, or if she was upset. When she had a bad night last month he had sent Beebee into her room wearing a funny hat.

Maybe Poe would invite this girl to their apartment and she’d sleep over in his bed. Rey thought Poe would be nice to wake up to—always smiling, his curls mussed in every direction. He’d spend the morning in bed with her, holding her, until Beebee needed to be taken on her morning walk.

A lucky girl, Rey thought, nuzzled her face into the sweater, and went to sleep.

***

When Rey woke up, the weather had changed.

Whereas last night she had been freezing, she woke up in the morning burning hot. The temperature must have gone up at least thirty degrees, the freakish cold front over and gone.

She crawled out of bed to make coffee, Beebee following in her tracks. She was dying to cool down, and reached to take off the sweater.

She stopped herself.

Rey bit her lip nervously and walked over to the air conditioning, turning it all the way up.

One of these days, she was going to have to be honest with herself.

***

Rey was sitting on the couch when she heard the sound of the key turning in the door.

Poe came in, tired but happy, and then his eyes fell on Rey, sitting on the couch in his green sweater. He smiled wider than he knew he was capable of.

“Poe—?” Rey said, her eyes wide, trembling as she clutched a mug of tea in her hands. “I think I love you.”

Poe stared at her, this silly, lovely girl he had spent the past fews months living with, her hair up in a messy bun; beautiful and cozy in his favorite sweater. He took a deep breath and grinned at her, beaming like sunshine.

“I know,” Poe said, his eyes brimming with tears, and he rushed in to scoop her up into his arms. “Believe me, I know.”


End file.
